118 CHA

The Gothic cover of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher of Estellaa temple without cult that receives the pilgrims and those who access the city of EGA for this part of the city, attract attention for the clarity of its facade once the restoration works of its northern cover are completed. Some jobs, framed in the General Plan of Jacobeo 27, That they began in October 2024 and that they seek, once previously the apses and covered in previous years had already been recovered, guaranteeing the conservation of this monument and promoting a better knowledge and assessment of this church whose first documentary date dates from the year 1135.

The Minister of Culture of the Government of Navarra, Rebeca Esnaola; together with the Director General of Culture – Prince of Viana Institution, Ignacio Apezteguía; The mayor of Estella, Marta Ruiz de Alda; and the diocesan economo of the archbishopric, Jorge Irurzun; Accompanied by technical staff of the Historical Heritage Service, they visited the restored facade on Monday morning. It has been an intervention that, according to those responsible, has put “even more than the cover and its monumental sculpture.”

The works on the smooth and arcolisous walls have included, indicated, the sanitation and box of sandy ashlars and that were very eroded replacing them with limestone similar to the original. The black crust has been cleaned that blackened the facade so much through the controlled arid projection. The original dimensions of the arcolisos and uprights have also been recovered on the sides of the cover and the supports have been rebuilt for the two large sculptures that flank the cover and the ashlars of the access staircase have been replaced by new limestone bleachers that allow a greater safety access for which some railings have been placed.

The most complex part of the interventionthe technicians explained, it has been the one that has been undertaken in the monumental sculpture. Volumetric reintegrations in artificial stone and substitutions have been sought where the stone had lost its structural capacity and the cleaning of the stone surface. This constitutes, as they found, the most striking part of the result of the intervention on the facade. For the cleaning of the stone, a combination of usual methods has been used in recovery of monumental sculpture, such as laser, microabrasion and microproject, which are applied depending on the characteristics of the areas to be treated. In addition, a minimum treatment of reintegration and protection of polychrome elements has been undertaken, which together with cleaning constitutes the most delicate and committed part of the intervention. The performance has been completed with a new monumental lighting.

José Luis Franchezarchitect of the Historical Heritage Service of the Prince of Viana institution, indicated that once the work in the covers of the moisture problems that they caused already found that it was necessary to work on the facade were carried out in 2016. “I was totally blackened by the accumulation of biological scab, there was such a accumulation of layers that gave a totally distorted image,” he said. The sculptural deployment, he stressed, “is one of the most interesting of the Navarrese Gothic.” Something that, Franchez added, especially attracts attention in a church that, being poor, in his day became Parish of Estella. The lack of resources, he continued, can be seen that the building was unfinished to the south side. However, he had donors and this was reflected on his Gothic cover.

For its part, Alicia wide Villanuevadirector of the Heritage Service, referred to the “rich polychromy” of the cover. They attract attention, he said, the inscriptions of the quadrilab and that referred to the characters directly on top. As for color, the blue and green tones of many of the elements present on the cover such as the wings of the angel, the leaves and the funds stand out. For their part, the redst tones have been found in the return of the hands and clothing of some of the characters,

From the company Leache constructionsawarded the works, Javier Leache, highlighted the opportunity to perform some works that had never been carried out before. “What has been lived here to learn has been a lot and this allows us to continue advancing in this type of jobs,” he said. To this intervention the Foral Government has allocated 507,616.09 euros. The General Jacobeo 27 Plan, developed between Yy the Archbishopric culture, foresees the restoration until 2026 of two other monuments, Santa María de Viana and San Salvador de Sangüesa. The total budget of the works is four million euros, which is being assumed equally by both institutions.

The intervention carried out in recent months to restore the facade of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher of Estella will now be completed with a project that the City Council of the Ega city plans to develop to adapt the environment. The mayor, Marta Ruiz de Alda, referred to the commitment already acquired by the Consistory in this regard and the next presentation before Prince of Viana the planned action project. This one, said the mayor, will develop in four phases Covering the entire area of ​​the Holy Sepulcher, from the one known as Casa Hermoso de Mendoza, the slope of access to the residence of Santo Domingo, the entire part in front of the facade and the one that goes to the hostel of tanners. Ruiz de Alda influenced that a grounding change will be enabled to reduce the speed of vehicles that travel through this area and that some type of car access control could be addressed to an area with a lot of pedestrian flow.

An intervention of the dimensions such as the one that has been carried out in the church of the Holy Sepulcher of Estella, maintained Alicia Width, allows to unveil or clarify certain questions and know details that until now they had remained hidden. However, new unknowns are often raised. This is what has happened in the city of EGA by restoring the northern cover of this church with the appearance of some inscriptions.

Right now, the inscriptions of the XIV spelling that appear scattered throughout the facade are found in the study phase. However, there are some in particular, a black graphite, on one of the sides of the door that “are a mystery.” Paleography specialists who visited the property thus qualified them.